Who would've guessed that emoji would be such a big deal in 2019... well, super-sized, personalized emoji in particular. We are talking about Apple's Animoji and Memoji, of course. A cutesy feature, first released with the iPhone X, which some thought would be forgettable, but it somehow set a mini-trend of its own. Soon after its release, Samsung and LG did something similar with their respective "AR Emoji" and "My Avatar".
But, of course, Apple is being Apple about it. While the other manufacturers are letting you save your customized emoji as an image or a video, so you can share it over any platform you desire, Apple's Animoji and Memoji will only work through Apple's iMessage app.
But fret not, there's a way to record your favorite Animoji and send it through any messenger you desire! Sure, it's a bit of a workaround, but it's not painful, we promise!
1. Start an iMessage conversation with yourself
Yep, that's right, you can send iMessages to yourself. You can either enter your phone number or your iCloud account in the address bar then fire off a message. Of course, we are going to do this to send our custom Animoji to... well ourselves for now.
Now, there are two ways to use an Animoji — you can either record a short video, talking through your animated character, or you can take a "picture" of said character, mimicking a grimace you are making into your phone screen.
2. How to copy an Animoji video
If what you want to share is a clip — that's super-easy. Send the video to yourself via iMessage, then do either one of the following:
3D Touch on the sent / received video and drag it up. Select "copy" from the menu.
Tap on the sent / received video, then select the "share" option on the bottom left. Choose the "copy" option.
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You can choose whichever of these methods you desire (obviously, if you have an iPhone XR, you don't have 3D Touch, so go with option 2). After you have copied the clip, open the messenger app you want to send your Animoji through, tap on the text field, and just choose "Paste".
The reason we are going with the Copy - Paste option is because we don't want to create clutter in your Photos gallery. If you want to re-use an Animoji any time soon, just head back to the iMessage conversation with yourself and copy it again.
3. How to copy an Animoji still photo
For some reason, sharing an Animoji picture is disabled. There's an easy workaround, though:
Tap on the picture you sent to yourself (or received from yourself), and pinch-zoom it to make it a little bit bigger
Press your iPhone's power and volume up buttons simultaneously to take a screenshot
Use the cropping tool to put your Animoji in a neat little box
Press the share button on the bottom left. Choose the messenger app you want to send it to, or just press "copy" and paste the image manually later
Tap "Done" in the top left and choose "Delete screenshot" just so it doesn't create any clutter in your Photos library
Preslav, a member of the PhoneArena team since 2014, is a mobile technology enthusiast with a penchant for integrating tech into his hobbies and work. Whether it's writing articles on an iPad Pro, recording band rehearsals with multiple phones, or exploring the potential of mobile gaming through services like GeForce Now and Steam Link, Preslav's approach is hands-on and innovative. His balanced perspective allows him to appreciate both Android and iOS ecosystems, focusing on performance, camera quality, and user experience over brand loyalty.
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